


Kitchen Table

by autumnsolstice9



Series: Robb & Arya [6]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen, not starkcest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-16 00:10:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11242182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnsolstice9/pseuds/autumnsolstice9
Summary: prompt: things you said at the kitchen table





	Kitchen Table

“Can you tell mother that I’ll be at Myrcella’s this afternoon?”

Robb looks up from his cereal at the sound of Arya’s voice. His little sister doesn’t bat an eyelash as she stares him down across the kitchen table, an innocent smile on her face. 

It’s too early in the morning for most of Robb’s brain to work- the sun has barely risen- but he still finds himself questioning his sister. Myrcella? The Baratheon girl? He couldn’t picture the two girls hanging out together- where Arya was all pointy elbows and athleticism, Myrcella was grace and refinement. Robert Baratheon and their father were friends, so it wasn’t unusual to see the Baratheon girl, but she had always seemed to get along better with Sansa than with Arya.

He’s pretty sure the last time Arya and Myrcella were in the same room, his sister had accidentally ripped the other girl’s dress and then proceeded to cry when she realized she wouldn’t be able to fix it. Needless to say, she was one of the last girls he would expect Arya to hang around with.

Arya continues to stare him down across the table, her gray eyes revealing the sneakiness her smile did not. “Where are you really going?” he finally asks, once the silence in the kitchen becomes too much.

Her smile dims a little, but she gives nothing away. “To Myrcella’s, of course! Mother wants me to become a debutante, and I thought that Myrcella may be able to help me more than Sansa, since she may have a different… approach to teaching me to be a lady.”

Robb knows this is likely a lie- but he has seen Arya’s desperate attempts to please their mother. He has watched her put on dresses, knowing that she would rather be playing soccer with the boys next door, and he has seen her eyes well up with tears when she would fall short in comparison to their sister. He knows Arya has measured herself to other girls and found herself lacking in the ways of being a lady, something their mother values greatly. They both know Catelyn loves her, but pride? He’s not sure Arya has ever been on the receiving end of that. If his sister, tomboyishness and all, is willing to put time in so she can be accepted in society and by their mother, he’s not surprised.

A lot of him still doubts Arya is actually going to Myrcella’s, but she’s staring at him, looking hopeful that he’ll play along with her plan. “Okay,” he finally says, “I’ll tell her you’re going to Myrcella’s.”

The smile she shoots him is like the sun and something he wishes she showed more often. She runs around the table, giving him a hug and kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Robb!” she squeals, her voice somewhat shrill with excitement. 

She moves to leave, her schoolbag slung over her shoulder, but he grabs her arm. “Arya,” he says, trying to sound less like an overbearing big brother and more like a concerned sibling, “where are you actually going?” 

He’s worried- she’s his sister after all- but she shrugs him off. “Don’t worry, Robb,” she says, her smile secretive and her expression closed off, “I’ll be okay. If anything happens, I’ll call Jon, so you don’t have to panic.”

“So Jon knows where you’re going?” He tries to tell himself he’s not jealous that their brother is privy to a part of her that he doesn’t know- one she doesn’t seem willing to let him into- but he knows that slight burn in his chest is definitely the green monster.

Arya seems oblivious to this. “Yeah,” she tells him, starting to head out of the kitchen and towards the front door on her way to school, “so you don’t have to worry. I’ll see you at dinner!”

With a wave, she leaves the house, her ponytail bobbing along with her.

Moments later, when Jon walks into the kitchen, Robb asks him all the questions that have been bubbling inside. “Where’s Arya going after school today? Why won’t she tell me? Is she going to get in trouble?”

He knows he sounds petulant, but he can’t help himself. His sister has a secret life and he’s curious to find out what it is, but Jon only waves him off with “Sorry man, not my place to tell you”, and Robb knows that he’s going to be kept in the dark.

He’ll cover for her today, but tomorrow, he’s finding out what his sister does after school. 

***

Robb never discovers what Arya’s secret is- instead she tells him.

It’s the middle of winter, and they both sit at the kitchen table, their hands curled around cups of hot chocolate. Arya keeps glancing at him from across the table, and he’s pretending not to notice, but it’s kind of hard not to when it’s just the two of them in the kitchen.

He plans on sitting it out- he’s not Jon, he doesn’t know what’s going on in her head- but then she abruptly smacks a hand on the table.

“Alright, so, I’m just going to say it. Your girlfriend sucks and you need to break up with her.”

The words came so quickly out of her mouth that he almost missed them. It takes him a minute to process, but in the end he has only one response: “What?”

Arya begins gesturing with her hands, her arms flying around as she speaks. “I know you like her and all that stuff but you need to break up with her. I’m not saying she’s evil but she isn’t a nice person and you should be dating a nice person. And I know for a fact that you could be dating a way better person and that you deserve better. I mean, Robb, one of Sansa’s friends? Really? You can do so much better. You should break up with her.”

He’s still stunned, but that feeling is slowly being replaced by confusion and anger. He’s been dating Jeyne Poole for about a month and a half, and he knows it isn’t anything serious- he’s only a high school senior after all- but he still feels indignant.

“What’s your problem?” he spits out. “What do you have against Jeyne? I’ve only ever seen her be nice, so I have no idea what you’re talking about. And who cares if she’s Sansa’s friend? If I like her then I like her! You’ve known her practically your whole life and now you have a problem with her? What the hell, Arya?”

Her face twists with anger, and she taps a hand on her knee as she talks. “That’s the problem, Robb! You’ve only seen her be nice, but that doesn’t mean she is!”

He points a finger at his sister and rises out his seat, “Who are you to judge?”

Arya jumps out of her seat at that, her voice now a shout. “I’m your sister, that’s who! And you should trust me!”

“Trust you?” he laughs out, loud and angry, “I barely know you! You don’t trust me with anything but yeah, let me trust you! You have your secrets and I cover for you, but you never tell me what’s going on. You don’t trust me, but you expect me to trust you?”

He finds some satisfaction in how her face has become a shade paler, and how her body has gone still. He meant to hurt her, his emotions overriding the protectiveness he has for his family, and when a thin layer of tears shines on Arya’s eyes, a twisted part of him is happy.

It only lasts a second.

“You know me,” she whispers, small and insecure. He hates hearing her like this, and regret floods his body as he takes in her body, which seems to be curling in on itself. “I trust you, Robb, more than a lot of people. Sansa doesn’t know I’m not at Myrcella’s after school- neither does Bran or Rickon. But you do. If I didn’t trust you, then you would be like the rest of them and think I’m at Myrcella’s.”

She takes a deep breath and wraps her arms around herself, biting her bottom lip. “Robb, you don’t have to believe me. Fine. Okay. But I’m telling you, she isn’t a nice person. You can think whatever you want, but I wouldn’t lie to you.” With that, she leaves the kitchen, and Robb sits with his thoughts.

It isn’t until two months later that he finds out what she meant. Arya, for all her ungracefulness, moves with ease in a red dress as she comes downstairs to wait for her friend, Gendry. He had asked her to his junior prom and their mother is ecstatic that she would be able to dress up Arya for once. 

Her hair is in a braided crown around her head, and her make-up is light but striking. The whole family, plus Jeyne, is waiting by the stairs to see her off and take pictures with her. When she gets to the bottom, she sticks her tongue out at Bran while Jon pulls her into a hug.

“No heels?” Sansa teases, but Arya lifts her dress up a couple inches to reveal a pair of beat up tennis shoes. It seems so natural for Arya- wear the dress, forgo the shoes, and it has Robb smiling while their father and Jon chuckle.

Robb feels Jeyne pull away from his arm and turns to see where she’s gone, finding her heading towards the kitchen with Sansa. They’re both giggling over something, and he is about to leave when he hears what they’re talking about.

“She looks ridiculous,” Sansa laughs, “nothing like a real lady!”

“Well, she never will be a real lady, not with that face,” Jeyne insists.

He doesn’t move from his spot, hidden behind a pantry door, as the two girls continue to insult Arya. He knew that Sansa has a tumultuous relationship with their sister, but at the end of the day they loved each other. Sure, she could be cruel to Arya, but he had thought they grew out of the ‘Arya Horseface’ days. Apparently not.

Apparently Jeyne has never stopped, either.

He doesn’t move for minutes, not until Arya appears by his side. “Come on,” she whispers, tugging on his arm, “we need to take some pictures together.”

“Are they always like that?” he asks, quiet, tinier than he has ever been.

He finds that her silence is answer enough.

A week later, after he has broken up with Jeyne Poole, he once again finds himself sitting at the kitchen table with Arya. Her smile is timid, but she sounds confident when she leans forward and tells him, “After school, I do the most unladylike thing ever. I box.”

She doesn’t invite him to any of her fights- only Jon is privy to those- but he counts it as a small victory.

***

Months later, it will be at that same kitchen table that she gives him a date and time for her match. He and Jon will be the loudest in the crowd- and when she wins, her smile is like so long ago when she first asked Robb to lie for her.

Her smile is like the sun and he couldn’t be more proud.

**Author's Note:**

> o heck yeah ur girl is back (once again)
> 
> it has been a week from hell and i'm having a lot of personal tragedy stuff go on so i prob won't be able to update needlework for a while. i know, i know. sorry. and if i do update it'll prob be for the robb and arya series bc they're my 2 favorite characters in asoiaf.
> 
> anyways,,, here is the next part of the robb and arya saga. i wish we got to see more interaction with them but smh i guess we'll never know.
> 
> and i guess i made sansa kinda a villain? she's got a tense relationship w/ arya that's pretty obvious but yeah pls don't hate me for that


End file.
